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Salem's Lot (also known as Salem's Lot: The Movie, Salem's Lot: The Miniseries and Blood Thirst) is a 1979 American television adaptation of 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King. Directed by Tobe Hooper and starring David Soul and James Mason, the plot revolves around a writer returning to his hometown and discovers the citizens are turning into vampires.
Plot[]
At a church in Guatemala, a man and a boy, Ben Mears and Mark Petrie, are filling small bottles with holy water. When one of the bottles begins to emit an eerie supernatural glow, Mears tells Mark that "they've found us again." Knowing an evil presence is nearby, they decide to stay to fight it.
Two years earlier, Mears, a successful author, returns after a long absence to his small hometown of Salem's Lot, Maine. Mears intends to write a book about the Marsten House, an old, ominous property on a hilltop which has a reputation for being haunted. Attempting to rent it, Mears finds that it has already been purchased by another new arrival in town, the mysterious Richard Straker, who is in the process of opening an antique shop with his oft-mentioned but never present business partner, Kurt Barlow. Instead, Mears moves into a boarding house in town run by Eva Miller and develops a romantic relationship with a local woman, Susan Norton. He befriends Susan's father, Dr. Bill Norton, and reconnects with his kindly former school teacher, Jason Burke. Mears tells Burke that he feels the Marsten House is somehow inherently evil, recalling that its original owner, Hubie Marsten — implied to have been a child molester — committed suicide there. Mears further recalls a traumatic childhood incident in which he broke into the house on a dare and saw Hubie's ghost.
After a large crate is delivered to the Marsten House one night, townspeople begin to disappear or die under strange circumstances. Mears and Straker are the main suspects as they are both new in town, but it eventually becomes clear that the crate contained Straker's business partner, Kurt Barlow — an ancient vampire who has come to Salem's Lot after sending Straker to make way for his arrival. Straker kidnaps a young boy, Ralphie Glick, as an offering to Barlow, while Barlow himself causes local realtor Larry Crockett to die of fright when he appears. The Glick boy then returns as a vampire to claim his brother, Danny. After his funeral, the undead Danny infects a gravedigger, Mike Ryerson, and attempts to prey on one of his schoolfriends, Mark Petrie. However, Mark is a horror film buff and manages to repel Danny with a cross.
As the vampirism spreads, Mears, Burke, and Dr. Norton gradually realize what is happening to the town and attempt to stop it. Mears is attacked by Ralph and Danny's presumed-dead mother Marjorie Glick after she revives on a mortician's table, but Mears defends himself using a makeshift cross. Mark's parents are both killed by Barlow, though Mark escapes with the assistance of a local priest. Burke, however, suffers a severe heart attack following an encounter with the newly vampirized Ryerson.
Seeking revenge for his parents' deaths, Mark breaks into the Marsten House, and a concerned Susan follows him inside; both are soon captured by Straker. Later, Mears and Dr. Norton enter the house, too, where Straker kills Norton by impaling him on a pair of antlers before he himself is fatally shot by Mears. Afterwards, Mears and the freed Mark find Barlow's coffin in the cellar and destroy him by driving a stake through his heart. Fleeing the other vampires in the house (the infected townsfolk), the two set fire to the Marsten property as they leave, though Susan is nowhere to be found. While the house burns, the wind carries the fire towards the town itself. As he and Mark drive away from Salem's Lot, Mears comments that the fire will drive all the vampires from their hiding places and purify the town from the evil that has engulfed it.
The story returns to Mears and Mark at the church in Guatemala two years later. It becomes clear that they are on the run from the surviving Salem's Lot vampires, and that their bottles of holy water glow whenever a vampire is nearby. Realising that they have been tracked down yet again, Mears and Mark return to their lodgings to collect their belongings. Once there, Mears finds Susan lying in his bed. Now a vampire, she prepares to bite him as he leans down to kiss her, but instead Mears drives a stake through her heart and destroys her. A grief-stricken Mears then leaves with Mark, knowing that the vampires will continue to pursue them.
Cast[]
- David Soul as Ben Mears
- James Mason as Richard Straker
- Reggie Nalder as Kurt Barlow
- Lance Kerwin as Mark Petrie
- Bonnie Bedelia as Susan Norton
- Lew Ayres as Jason Burke
- Ed Flanders as Bill Norton
- Fred Willard as Larry Crockett
- Julie Cobb]] as Bonnie Sawyer
- Kenneth McMillan as Constable Parkins Gillespie
- Geoffrey Lewis as Mike Ryerson
- Barney McFadden as Ned Tibbets
- Marie Windsor as Eva Miller
- Bonnie Bartlett as Ann Norton
- George Dzundza as Cully Sawyer
- Elisha Cook Jr. as Gordon "Weasel" Phillips
- Clarissa Kaye as Marjorie Glick
- Ned Wilson as Henry Glick
- Barbara Babcock as June Petrie
- Joshua Bryant as Ted Petrie
- James Gallery as Father Callahan
- Brad Savage as Danny Glick
- Ronnie Scribner as Ralphie Glick
Production[]
After Warner Bros. acquired the rights to 'Salem's Lot, the studio sought to turn the 400-page novel by Stephen King into a feature film, while still remaining faithful to the source material. Producer Stirling Silliphant, screenwriter Robert Getchell, and writer/director Larry Cohen all contributed screenplays but none proved satisfactory. "It was a mess," Stephen King said. "Every director in Hollywood who's ever been involved with horror wanted to do it, but nobody could come up with a script."
The project was eventually turned over to Warner Bros. Television and producer Richard Kobritz decided Salem's Lot would work better as a television miniseries than as a feature film format due the novel's length. Television writer Paul Monash was contracted to write the teleplay, having previously produced the film adaptation of Stephen King's novel Carrie A screening of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), resulted in Richard Kobritz selecting Tobe Hooper as director. With a budget of $4 million, principal photography began on July 10, 1979, in the Northern California town of Ferndale, California, with some scenes filmed at the Burbank studios. Filming officially wrapped on August 29, 1979.
The producers were unable to find a house that looked like the Marsten House in Ferndale, California (where the bulk of the mini-series was filmed). A much smaller house was located on a hill that overlooked the town - like described in the novel. The family that lived in the real property were paid $20,000 to move out during filming, and were guaranteed all the timber used in construction afterwards. The producers spent $100,000 (total) to build the façade. See the Gallery for photos of the façade and the actual house as it looks presently.
Adaptation from source material[]
Although generally the same story, the television adaptation takes several liberties with King's source novel. Many characters have been combined or merely deleted, as have certain subplots, and the character of Barlow is totally different in the miniseries from how he is in the novel. However, Stephen King praised Paul Monash's screenplay and commented "Monash has succeeded in combining the characters a lot, and it works."
However, much of the violence and graphic scenes in the novel had to be omitted to meet broadcast restrictions. Producer Richard Kobritz, who took a strong creative interest in his films, also added several changes to Monash's script including turning the head vampire Kurt Barlow from a cultured human-looking villain into a speechless demonic-looking monster. Kobritz explained:
"We went back to the old German Nosferatu concept where he is the essence of evil, and not anything romantic or smarmy, or, you know, the rouge-cheeked, widow-peaked Dracula. I wanted nothing suave or sexual, because I just didn't think it'd work; we've seen too much of it. The other thing we did with the character which I think is an improvement is that Barlow does not speak. When he's killed at the end, he obviously emits sounds, but it's not even a full line of dialogue, in contrast to the book and the first draft of the screenplay. I just thought it would be suicidal on our part to have a vampire that talks. What kind of voice do you put behind a vampire? You can't do Bela Lugosi, or you're going to get a laugh. You can't do Regan in The Exorcist, or you're going to get something that's unintelligible, and besides, you've been there before. That's why I think the James Mason role of Straker became more important."
Other changes by Kobritz included having the final confrontation with Barlow in the cellar of the Marsten House whereas in the book it is in the basement of Eva Miller's boarding house, a concept Kobritz felt "Just doesn't work. I mean, from a point of sheer construction in a well-written screenplay, he's got to reside in the inside of the Marsten House. He's a major star in the picture - the third or fourth most important character - he's got to be there. It may have worked in the book, but not in the movie." Susan's death was also moved to the climax, to give her death "more impact and provide the film with a snap ending."
Release[]
Salem's Lot originally aired on CBS on November 17 and 24 of 1979 in two 2-hour segments. The following year, CBS aired an edited version of the miniseries in one 3-hour segment. NAL/Signet Books also published a paperback tie-in of the novel which included "8 pages of blood-chilling photos".
Theatrical cut[]
A 112-minute edit of the miniseries was subsequently given a theatrical release in Europe. The theatrical cut of Salem's Lot features different musical cues, alternative scenes, and deletes many scenes, including the prologue and epilogue with Ben Mears and Mark Petrie in Guatemala as well as Susan's fate.
Home release[]
The theatrical cut also aired on cable television and was titled Salem's Lot: The Movie for its VHS release. It was later released alongside A Return to Salem's Lot on VHS as a "Movie Double Feature". Warner Bros. eventually released the full-length miniseries on to VHS, as well as on [DVD]. The DVD release includes all of the extra scenes from the theatrical version, except the alternative scene of Larry Crockett putting Cully Sawyer's gun in his mouth. A Blu-ray version was released on September 20, 2016 alongside other Stephen King adaptations like Cat's Eye and It.